You don't need tears for alibis
by SongBirdie
Summary: Sometimes, there is no happy ending. Tony and Tim talk about how their latest case fits this. Written for the All Dialogue challenge on NFA. A Tony & Tim friendship fic.


**You don't need tears for alibis**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own NCIS; it is the property of its respective creators.

Written for the **All Dialogue** challenge on NFA.

**Summary:** Sometimes, there is no happy ending. Tony and Tim talk about how their latest case fits this.

Title taken from the song **Undone**, by FFH. All rights belong to them.

**Warning:** This story contains talk of child abuse, death of a minor, suicidal thoughts, and a killing by a police officer in the line of duty. Please do not read if any of these subject matters offend you.

* * *

"You okay? Right, stupid question. Of course, you're not okay. Abby says you haven't moved from the floor in over two hours. Do you want to sit in a chair, or something? I'm going to start taking your silence as agreement, probie."

"Just go away."

"You know I can't do that. You shouldn't be alone right now, and Abby would kill me if you were. She scares me more than you do."

"I'm not going to slit my wrists, if that's what you're both afraid of. Problem solved. Go."

"Forgive me if I don't feel as if I can take your word on that. I'm staying, so you'll just have to deal with it."

"Please, I'll be fine tomorrow, just leave me alone."

"Here, come on Probie, breathe, I'm here, aim for the bucket. Just breathe."

"I vomited on your clothes."

"Sweat pants and an Ohio State sweatshirt are replaceable."

"Who are you and what did you do to Tony?"

"This is nice Tony. Your regular Tony will be back when his probie doesn't look like shit."

"Thanks."

"The truth hurts."

"Where's Abby?"

"She needed to sleep. I told her I'd stay with you. Plus, she thought maybe I could get through to you. It wasn't my idea, don't give me that look. Like you can say no to Abby when she gets _that_ look on her face. Are you sure you don't want to sit on a chair?"

"Tony."

"Alright, alright, I'm just saying I'm not as young as I used to be. The floor is hard. And you shouldn't be on it with your ribs."

"They're fine."

"Fine is my line. You're not fine."

"Well, I guess I picked up some of your habits, hanging out with you for eight years."

"Did it have to be that one?"

"Annoying, isn't it?"

"I get the point."

"Where did I go wrong? What did I miss?"

"You didn't."

"A girl is dead, Tony! It was my job to watch her."

"Because we thought she was a victim. She wasn't. She was the killer. You did what you had to do, Tim."

"I shot a seventeen year old girl. Does it matter if she was a killer?"

"You know it does."

"What I know is that she was interested in computers, that she loved her baby brother, and that she called for her mother after I shot her Tony. The last thing she ever said was she wanted her mommy!"

"What do you want me to say, McGee? We all messed up. We all missed the signs. It never should have gotten to the point that you had to shoot her. But it did. She wasn't helpless. She killed a sailor, and framed someone else for it."

"She killed him to save her baby brother."

"And the courts would have been lenient with her because of that, probably. She pushed the issue. You gave her every chance to back down, to surrender. Her brother was going to be safe, Tim. Making sure of that was the only thing keeping her going. Once she knew he'd be taken care of, she was finished."

"We could have gotten her help, both of them."

"She didn't want to be saved, McGee. It was suicide by cop."

"If that was Sarah-"

"It wasn't."

"But if it was, I'd want to know that the Agent pointing a gun at her had done everything he could to help her."

"You did do everything, McGee. You disobeyed an order to shoot. You tried to talk her down. She didn't want to be saved, she was through. It's horrible, and it doesn't make sense, but it's not your fault."

"I killed her."

"Yeah, you did. But Tim, something went wrong in her life long before we starting investigating, and she wasn't interested in having us help her. She fixed things the only way she knew how. She got rid of the problem."

"But that didn't fix things."

"Some damage can't be fixed. And certainly not with a bullet."

"How did it get that far?"

"No one wanted to see what was happening."

"And a girl is dead because of it."

"And a boy is hurt and alone, with his only family dead."

"Why do we do it? How many people do we really save? Hey!"

"You're lucky I gave you that slap, and not Gibbs. You would be seeing stars if he heard that."

"Tony-"

"Listen to me, and listen to me good, Probie. We do this job because someone has to. We do it because there _are_ people we save and help, and because even when things go to hell, we know we tried. We do it because people like Amy and Luke Moore deserve to have a voice, and we need to be it for them. We do it because people deserve justice, even though that's not what they always get. We do it because for every kid we save there's now one less who was over looked, or shunned, one less failure on the part of the people who should have cared. If you want to blame anyone for what happened, blame the sailor who thought beating kids was okay, blame the teachers who didn't want to see what was right in front of their eyes, blame their mother for not being strong enough to stand up for her kids, blame the system for not being good enough. But don't blame yourself. Amy and Luke were failed a long time ago."

"So, what? I just forget what happened?"

"No. You don't forget. You remember. You try to help kids like them before it gets to that point. You keep on an eye on Luke for Amy."

"The funeral's tomorrow."

"I know. I'm proud of you for paying for it."

"How'd you-?"

"I'm an investigator, McGee."

"Will you go?"

"I'll be there, right next to you, Tim."

"Tony, we can get off the floor."

"Yes!"

"Tony?"

"Yeah, McGee?"

"Thanks."

"You're welcome, Tim. That's what friends are for."

"I like nice Tony."

"Don't get used to him. His quota has been used up for the next three months."

"Really?"

"Or until the next time he's needed. Go to sleep, McGee."

"Night, Tony."

"Night, probie."

* * *

Written on March 22nd, 2012


End file.
